Points of Authority
by LadyBranwen2012
Summary: Trunks is kidnapped by 17 and 18 and is kept in their lab. After a while, 18 tells Trunks something about 17 that changes everything...Kind of a dark fic. Songfic, but you don't have to like the song to read the story.
1. Chapter 1

Hey there u guys! This is a new songfic, yet another one of Linkin Park's songs. You don't need to read the song part or anything to get what is going on in the story and if you don't like Linkin Park or their songs, you don't have to, this story is perfectly good even without the song. ^_^ Okay, you're going to need some background information for this one…Trunks was fighting 17 and 18 one day, Gohan has been dead for like a week and Trunks gets distracted and 17 and 18 kidnap him and take him to their lab. So this songfic starts like a week after Trunks has been kept there and well…you'll see from the fic ^_^ Don't forget to review! I love reviews! P.S. I think that 18 would really be like this, since she did in the other timeline become one of the good guys, but probably, you guys will think that she is OOC and at the end, 17 is OOC. 

[Disclaimer]: I don't own DBZ, or Linkin Park.

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Points of Authority

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Forfeit the game / Before somebody else  
Takes you out of the frame / Puts your name to shame  
Cover up your face / You can't run the race  
The pace is too fast / You just won't last

I didn't think that I could make it. Everything was so wrong. I never thought in all of my wildest dreams that they would have kidnapped me. When they did, I couldn't understand why, but now I do. They wanted a toy to play with…well, at least 17 did. He's the one who wanted to kidnap me, 18 had just wanted to kill me then and there and get rid of me. Instead they took me to their hideout, making sure to cover my eyes so I wouldn't know where I was. We flew for such a long time, but soon they had me in their lab and trapped me inside. Both of them shot out energy to create a forcefield to keep me in a section of the lab where it would be most 'comfortable' for me. On my side of the lab I had a chair, a bathroom with a shower, and a mat on the floor that they told me I could sleep on.

As soon as 17 had locked me up, he said he was going to go out and have some more fun, 18 stayed behind. For a long while, she stood looking at me, my eyes wide and frightened. I was sure that she would kill me like she wanted to, but instead she said, "Hmm…well, I suppose you need something other than that mat to sleep on right?" She said it in a lifeless tone, like she didn't care.

"You know," she called out from a different room, "17 has had toys before…" She walked back in the room holding two blankets and a pillow. "He always breaks them." She threw the blankets and the pillow at me and I caught them. I looked down at them, then back up at her. "Don't be so shocked. I don't like you and believe me, I would love to kill you, but," she sighed, "I'm not supposed to touch 17's toys anymore."

"Why are you doing this?" I asked. I heard the note of terror in my voice, but it was too late, it had slipped.

"What? Giving you things to keep your pathetic body warm? Well, even though they're _his_ toys, 17 doesn't know how to take care of you all. He plays with them for a little bit, then leaves them for a while. He forgets to feed all of his toys. So, every single one of them has either been beaten to death, starved to death, has died because of how 'cold' it gets in here, or a combination of all of those things." She laughed. "So, I figure that if 17 wants to keep his toy, meaning you, he'll have to take care of you, which he won't. So I will, but only as long as you promise not to be a bad boy and try to leave."

"What makes you think I will ever want to stay here? I'll take the first chance I get to get out of this place!"

"Oh no, I doubt that. There has only been one person to do that…and 17 made sure that that pet died."

"I'll find a way out," I threatened. 

"Just give up. You won't get out of here alive." 

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You love the way I look at you  
While taking pleasure in the awful things you put me through  
You take away if I give in  
My life  
My pride is broken

And 18 was right. All 17 ever did was beat me. Like I was his own punching bag or place to test out a new technique. Time and time again my body ached from all the blows he dealt. He would smile when he saw me lying on the ground not able to move. Sometimes I would go into the bathroom and not come out for half and hour and one of them would come in to find me bleeding from the cuts I had made in an attempt to kill myself. It would only make things worse. 18 would bandage me up, telling me it was very stupid of me to do it, then 17 would come and beat me again.

"Look at that, I beat him again. No surprise there. Trunks, why do you even bother to try and fight me, you know I'll win." He still stood above me. "I love the look on your face every time I beat you." He kicked me lightly with his foot. 

"No matter what I do, you beat me anyway. No matter if I fight you deliberately or if I just let you beat me, I still feel the same afterwards," I whispered. 

He just laughed and walked away from me. I heard him slam the door of the lab.

"This wasn't supposed to happen to me," I whispered to myself. "I never thought…this would happen to me. I thought I'd be dead by now. This is demeaning…I don't have a life anymore…and my pride is broken." Tears slid down my face onto the mat. 

__

You like to think you're never wrong (You live what you learn)  
You want to act like you're someone (You live what you learn)  
You want someone to hurt like you (You live what you learn)  
You want to share what you've been through (You live what you learn)

"Should have thought about that before you started to fight us." 18 stepped in front of me.

Usually I made an attempt to punch her or to do something to her, but today I was just too weak. 18 was by far the nicer of the two, and not just because she's the one who fed me and washed my clothes while giving me other things to wear. She talked to me. I think she wanted someone to talk to. I guess, in a way, I was her plaything as well. The feeling I got was that she was lonely, though in a million years she would never admit it. She couldn't talk to 17 about the things she talked about with me like, for example, the clothes she bought, or this new place she wanted to take over and make it their new hideout. Whenever she did try to talk about these things with 17, he would space out or just leave. I, on the other hand, couldn't leave, but I welcomed her conversation because it never involved any type of beatings. I talked to her as well, about the things I felt. I told her how I wanted to leave, how I missed my mom, how I missed Gohan. I told her about everything 17 did to me. Sometimes she wouldn't say anything back, she just would sit there and listen to me the same way I did with her. Sometimes she would answer and tell me I'd never make it out, but to look on the bright side because they didn't know who my mom was, so they couldn't kill her. 

"Why is he like this?" I asked her today. "You never beat me, and it just can't be because I'm 17's toy. What is different between you two? Please, tell me."

18 sighed and sat down on the couch on the outside of my enclosure. "Well…He's always been the more immature one of us. He could never learn to obey Dr. Gero's orders, so Gero beat him."

"How could he?" I asked. "You two have endless energy and were certainly faster than your human creator…why would 17 let him?"

"At that time we didn't have endless energy. We were still mostly human back then. Being the idiot that he is, 17 would wear himself out quickly doing whatever immature things he would do. By the time Gero confronted him, 17 barely had enough energy to put up a fight and Gero was able to beat him up. And so that is all he knows how to do now. Thankfully, Gero decided to give both of us endless energy and now, well, here we are."

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You love the things I say I'll do-  
The way I'll hurt myself again just to get back at you  
You take away when I give in / my life  
My pride is broken

Later, 17 returned and wanted to beat me up again. I still couldn't move and didn't even want to try, but I did feel like trying to give him an emotional beating. 

"Still lying on the floor I see. Get up, let's fight."

18 had left to do some shopping I think. "Is fighting all you do?"

17 walked into my prison and lifted me up off of the ground by my shirt. "I know how to destroy too. Enough of the chit chat." When I made no move to fight him, he said, "What? Can't fight today? Well, at least you've lasted longer than any of my other pets." How could I fight him? I was barely able to stand up. 

"One of these days I will get out of here. I will. If I have to kill myself in order to escape, then so be it."

17 laughed. "Oh, but you've tried that already. You know that we're not going to let that happen. But I do think it's funny when you say things like that."

"If I kill myself you won't have a plaything."

He raised his eyebrows. "That's right, and that would mean that I would have to go out and get some other worthless human to torture. And you don't want that...do you? Maybe it should be your mom…Yeah, come on, why don't you kill yourself?" He punched me in the gut and I fell to the floor.

"You know nothing else do you? That's because all you've been programmed to do is destroy. There is so much more than that to being alive!" I lifted myself up from off the floor.

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You like to think you're never wrong(You live what you learn)  
You want to act like you're someone(You live what you learn)  
You want someone to hurt like you(You live what you learn)  
You want to share what you've been through(You live what you learn)

Seventeen got into a fighting stance, waiting for me to attack him. Instead I stood and looked at him and gave him my verbal attack. "You like to think that you're never wrong. You think that you're actually someone. You want attention and will get it any way that you can, even by destruction. That's all you were ever taught. Gero even showed you himself."

He straightened up, I had obviously struck a nerve. "You don't know what you're talking about, human." His tone meant certain death. 

"He beat you," I continued. "Whenever you did something wrong, he would beat you up because at that time you didn't have infinite powers. You would wear yourself out and then not have enough energy to fight back."

He sneered. "You know nothing! And who told you that anyway!" He looked away, thoroughly pissed at me. "I bet I know who told you. It was 18 wasn't it?" 

I ignored him. "That pain that you felt then, you've carried it with you all your life. I've been wondering, all of my life, why you have this need to kill. Why you need to bring pain to others. I mean, Dr. Gero has been dead for such a long time, even if he told you that his master plan was to destroy the world, why do it?! He's dead! He can't control you anymore!"

"I like killing, now shut up before I kill you! I don't want to have to break my new toy." I was getting to him, I could definitely tell. The door to the lab opened and 18 walked in. 17 spun around and was about to yell at her, but I cut in.

"Why can't you accept it 17?" He turned back to face me. "You hurt people because that is what you were taught! That is what you went through. It's not because you enjoy it. I bet that every time you hurt someone, it reminds you of the life you used to have. It reminds you of the daily beatings. You just want someone to share your pain. You want people to hurt the way you used to be hurt. That's what this is all about, isn't it?"

By now, he had raised his hands to his head and tried to rip his hair out. "Shut up! Shut up! 18, get this piece of shit out of here! Now!"

I was shocked. My aim was for him to get so mad that he would kill me so that I wouldn't have to suffer anymore. Why was he letting me go? Eighteen seemed to be as shocked as I was. 

"Are you sure? I mean, don't you want to beat him for all of that?" she asked.

He seemed to be completely breaking down. I had no idea that this could ever happen, but I saw a single tear run down his face. "I said get him out of here!!!!" he screamed. I had to cover my ears at the loudness of his voice. 

It seemed to wake 18 up because she ran over to me, grabbed me roughly by my hair and dragged me towards the door. The last thing I saw before she covered my eyes with a blindfold was 17 pacing back and forth across the lab, holding his head and muttering under his breath. Once the blindfold was covering my eyes, I heard things crashing around in the lab and 17 cursing. 17 was obviously destroying everything in his path. I began to wonder if this had been such a good idea. It was likely that he would go out and destroy more cities after he got done with the lab.

Finally I felt air rushing by me as 18 flew me someplace far away from their lair. 

"Why did you have to go and do that?" 18 asked. "Do you know what you've done? He doesn't need to be reminded of that! Once he's done with being this way, he's not going to have any mercy on you." 

She let me go and I plummeted to the earth. I fell to the ground with a thud. I whipped the blindfold off and lay looking up at her floating above me.

"He's going to be even worse now, do you realize that?" 18 left me there, stranded in some strange place, far away from any city. It took forever for me to recover from everything and finally get myself oriented. Two days later I returned to my house where my mom treated my many wounds and forbid me from leaving the house. 

That was a month ago, and in that month I have figured out why 17 had let me go. It was his one act of kindness. I had gotten through to his cold heart and made him realize why he did the things he did. He doesn't want to be that way and deep down he knows it. He realized that killing wasn't the right thing to do and hurting people would never take away his pain. In fact, I haven't heard anything of either of the androids for that entire month. I hope everything stays this way and both of the androids give up destroying Earth. But, even that might be too much to hope. 18's last words to me have stayed with me and I know that she is probably right. Once he recovers, if he does, 17 will do more damage than ever before and I'll have to defend Earth once again. I can only hope that maybe, by some sort of miracle, 17 will give up his ways and become a better android. After all, all I can do is hope.

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Thanks for reading this story! I hope you liked it! Leave your reviews and let me know how you feel about it. ^_^

~Lady Branwen~


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own DBZ or Linkin Park.

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Points of Authority

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Chapter 2

I've had been dreaming of the androids for a few weeks. Every night, without fail, they would appear suddenly in my dreams. But, unlike my dreams, they didn't show up in the real world. Except one day, I saw 18 shopping. She saw me and stopped walking to stare at me. Both of us were locked in each other's gaze, waiting for the other to do something. Finally, 18 turned and kept walking to the next store on the street. People ran away from her, afraid for their lives, but she paid them little attention and walked into the store. Every person ran out of the store, even the manager and 18 went on picking out clothes. I pushed through the crowd running out of the store to get inside to talk to her. Why? I don't even know. But all I know is that I needed to talk to her, to see if 17 gave up fighting.

"Aren't you afraid I'm going to kidnap you again?" she asked. She did not even look up from the clothes rack. She picked out a pink jacket and tried it on. 

"Yes. A little. I wanted to talk to you though."

"About?"

"17." She glanced at me then took the coat off and put it back on the rack only to take out a dark blue dress.

"What about him? You must not be asking how he is doing, are you? Why would you even care?"

"I wanted to know if he's decided to stop fighting. I haven't seen him or heard of him in so long…"

She put the dress on her arm and picked out a green suit. "You really messed with his mind. He's not happy about that."

"What has he been doing?"

"Sitting at home, staring at your enclosure and your blood stains on the floor. He's barely said a word. He didn't even yell at me for telling you. But I can tell he's very, very mad at you, his treasured pet."

She pushed past me to the doorway, clothes still in her possession. 

I followed her outside as she walked to the next store. "But when I last saw you, you said that he would be even worse. Do you care that he will get worse? I never really understood why you said that."

"I said it for your benefit. All you did was achieve the opposite of what you wanted to do. Now that you have messed with 17's mind, he's going to get back at you. I just wanted to make you understand what you had done. But, I suppose in a way, I do care because then I wouldn't be able to shop anymore."

I knew she was hinting that 17 would destroy the world. For some reason, I refused to believe her, even though I knew that it was a very real possibility. "Tell me everything he has done, I want to know."

She scoffed. "Why should I tell you? That information won't help you."

"Please, I just want to know. If the information won't help me, then why not tell it to me?"

She sighed as she finally reached the next store. "I told you already. He's been sitting around the house, concentrating on you and how he will get you back. All he does is look at where you used to sleep, your blood, hell, he probably goes over in his mind everything you have said to him to piss himself off even more."

"Do you think I've changed him at all? Have I gotten through to him?"

She smirked. "You did for the first few days, but after that he got over it and started his 'Campaign of Revenge on that Purple-Haired Freak' as he likes to call it." Seeing no clothes in the store that she liked, she walked back out and flew away, throwing a energy ball at me that knocked me back into the store. Once I recovered and went back outside, she was no where in sight.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

18 opened the door to the lab and locked it with a code once she was inside. She looked directly ahead of her to see 17 still sitting on the couch in front of Trunks' old enclosure, just as she had left him. 

"Well, I got some new clothes," she said, trying to draw his attention away from all his planning.

"Good for you," he muttered. 

18 walked by the couch and into her room to model her clothes for him. "What do you think?" She came back out wearing the dark blue dress.

"Wonderful, beautiful, spectacular," 17 answered in monotone, not even glancing in her direction. His eyes were fixed on Trunks' blood stains.

"I like it," 18 said, used to 17 ignoring her. 

17 got up and walked over to the blood stain and crouched down next to it. "I wonder what it would be like to drink his blood…"

18 raised her eyebrow. "You are getting stranger every day. We don't drink or eat either, so just forget about that. Come on, stop thinking about him for a minute. I have news for you."

He stood back up, still keeping his eyes on the stain. "Doubt it. You just want to keep showing me all your clothes."

"As a matter of fact," 18 answered testily, "I saw _him _today."

17's head snapped in her direction, his eyes wide. "What did he say?"

"He wanted to know about you. What you have been doing, if you've given up fighting."

He walked up to her. "What did you tell him?"

"That you are planning to kill him. That you've been staring at his cell ever since he left, that you've hardly said a word and have been plotting your evil schemes."

"You have a soft spot for that boy, don't you, 18?" 17 squinted his eyes.

"What?" She asked, appalled. "What would ever make you think that?"

"He mentioned to me one time how you were nicer to him. You fed him, washed his clothes, talked to him. You never did any of that with any of the others."

"That's true, and all the others have died, haven't they? The only reason why your toy lasted that long was because I helped keep him alive."

"That's exactly what I mean, 18. You didn't have to do that. We could have went out and got another pet. You like him."

She shook her head. "I can't believe this nonsense." 18 pushed past him back into the other room.

"You have always been the weaker of the two of us, and not just in strength."

She came back out, gritting her teeth. "That will be the last time I ever do you a favor then, 17, if you're going to say those things."

He smirked and sat back down on the couch.

After a few minutes of silence between the two androids, 18 had calmed down. "So what do you plan on doing to him?" she asked as she sat next to him.

His gazed was focused on a rotting apple core near the back of Trunks' enclosure. "I'll find him, torture him and then kill him."

"You don't have a master plan?"

"Oh, yes, the master plan. I'll tear him limb from limb and make him know what he has done. I'm going to find him tomorrow and do it."

"So he did hit a raw nerve." 17 didn't answer. "Well, I'm going to go back out again to get more clothes." He again said nothing as he had sunken back into his planning.

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"He definitely has some short circuits in his system," 18 thought as she left the lab.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I was sitting in my room and it was late at night that day. I was writing in my journal when I heard something tapping on my window. I didn't look up from my writing right away because Gohan always got my attention by doing this. But then I realized that Gohan wasn't around anymore and I snapped my head towards the window and my eyes locked with a pair of cold blue eyes. My eyes wandered over the features, finally realizing that it was 18 who I was looking at, I relaxed, but not entirely. She was still a threat.

I walked to the window and opened it the slightest bit to talk to her. "What do you want? And how did you find out where I live?" I demanded.

She ignored my questions and said, "I saw your mother downstairs. Now I know who she is."

"What have you done to her?" I yelled. _"She better not have done anything to Mom,"_ I remember thinking.

"Relax. She just passed out when she saw me."

"Why are you here?"

"To give you a little information…at a price of course."

I looked at her blankly. Was the information she had to give worth risking anything? "What's the price?"

"Does it matter? My piece of information is invaluable to you. It could save your life," she said with a hint of mockery in her voice.

"Then why the hell would you tell me?" I was getting more and more suspicious of her motives by the minute.

"He plans on killing you tomorrow. He said he is going to tear you limb from limb and torture you as much as possible before he kills you. I think you should get away before he finds you. I will have to tell him where you live you know."

"Fine. What's your price?" Even as I asked her those questions, my mind was racing, trying to figure out where Mom and I could hide for a few days. We would probably have to find some remote place on the other side of the world, or at least far away. That had it's problems though because if I flew, then 17 would find me for sure. I had to keep my ki lower than an ant's if I wanted to live.

"Planning already, hmm? Well, my price is a simple kiss."

Nothing could have prepared me for that, nothing at all! "What?! You've got to be kidding. I would never kiss you! You've destroyed the world, killed millions of people-" quicker than I have ever seen her move, she threw up the window, reached threw, grabbed my shirt and dragged me towards her and locked me in a kiss. I was too surprised to move, but she quickly drew back. I spit on the floor and wiped my mouth off on my shirt. She grinned and flew away laughing.

As much as I hated it, that was my first kiss, I'm sad to say. Now she's ruined another part of my life. Those thoughts still on my mind, I gathered up a few clothes of mine and of my mom's and ran downstairs. I picked Mom up and ran as fast as I could to a lake that was 50 miles away from my house. Mom had woken up by then and I told her to hold her breath as I dived down into the water and surfaced in a cave hidden in one of the mountains. As far as has ever been known, that was the only entrance to the cave, since it was closed on all sides. It was hollow all the way to the top of the cave, with no tunnels inside, just a ledge about 7 feet by 18 feet to sit on. I had always thought that someone had made it, because it seemed perfectly suited to hold someone in it. And living there, going under the water and surfacing to get some food every now and then was how I spent the next week.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"I have more good news for you, 17."

He didn't answer, yet again.

"I know where he lives."

He smiled. "Good. Let's go pay him a visit now."

18 led the way to the Capsule Corp. building and showed 17 where she had seen Trunks' mother. 17 kicked the door in and walked into the house. He sniffed the air, savoring every moment, just waiting to kill Trunks. He walked up the stairs to the second floor and found his way to Trunks' room.

"He sleeps here," he commented. Then, "No one is here right now, but he does live here…Did you talk to him?" He turned around to study 18's reaction.

She looked at him without any expression at all and asked, "Now why would I do a thing like that?"

"Hmm…Yes, why would you?" He turned away from her, not bothering to wait for her answer, but instead studied the room carefully.

18 glanced over at the desk, at the still open book Trunks had been writing in. She walked over to it and pretended to notice it for the first time. "Look at this, 17."

He turned slowly around, studying the cracks in the ceiling, the door to his closet that was falling off the hinges. "What do you want? I'm busy." 18 picked the book up and carried it over to him. He looked down at the neat handwriting. "A journal." He grabbed the book roughly out of her grasp and flipped through the pages, pausing every now and then to read a passage. Finally he closed it and said, "I think I'll be taking this with me. Let's look for more things that he has written."

They searched for a few hours, finding notebooks filled with his thoughts and pictures he had drawn of their eyes, of Gohan, of trees, flowers, and waterfalls. One wouldn't think that a warrior, plagued with the burden of keeping the world safe, would have time to draw, much less be such a wonderful artist. His sketches were practically flawless, looking very much like the real things he had gotten the ideas to draw them from. 17 took all of this back to the lab where he studied everything Trunks had written, completely forgetting that he was going to kill Trunks the next day. Trunks came out of hiding, but never saw or heard anything of either of the androids until he went out searching for them once he returned for good from the past with every intention of destroying them.

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** The Day Trunks Returns to the Future **

I returned home after helping everyone in the past defeat the androids and Cell. I told Mom everything. I was so happy to see everyone, especially Gohan again, and I was definitely happy to finally meet my father, even if he did ignore me a lot. Now that I was home again, I knew I had to destroy the androids in my time. That wasn't a big deal, I had gained enough power to kill them and Cell by now. Then everything would turn out the way it should. 

After talking with my mom, I headed out to search for the androids and in no time I found 18 destroying another city while 17 was about to kill a helpless old man trapped inside of a car. I shot an energy blast at him and he dodged out of the way just in time. 18 noticed my presence as well and stopped what she was doing.

"He's changed," 17 said, his eyes wide with shock.

"So, you've come back for more punishment? Good. I've been having a bad day and killing you will be just what I need," she said. She launched at me and I moved past her so fast she didn't even notice until she realized that her fist hadn't hit anything. I reappeared all around her as we fought it out and finally I kicked her back to where 17 was still standing. I don't know if it was just me, or if 18 wasn't fighting at her full strength. Maybe she just looked slow to me because of all the strength and mobility I had gained while in the past, but for a second, I thought I saw something different in her eyes in place of the usual coldness. Care. I didn't pay that any attention.

"He's definitely changed," 17 said. 

"I hate you," 18 said with gritted teeth, but she paused for a second before she said hate. It was almost as if she forced herself to say it.

"You hate the fact that I'm stronger you and you are powerless to stop me. How do you think these innocent people have felt for all these years? It's time you pay for what you have done!"

"Oh I doubt that," 17 said. He crossed his arms defiantly. "Have you been missing something? A notebook perhaps? I took that. All of your notebooks with everything you have written, all your innermost feelings. All your strategies. Your journal. I've gotten to know you better, blonde-boy. I think you have things backwards. I think it's time you pay for what you did to _me_."

I smirked. What a fool. He thought he knew me. Too bad for him that he didn't know I had all this power. If he had known, I'm sure he would not have been so arrogant.

"Let's get him, 17," 18 said. 

I fought them both, dodged all their attacks, deflected their energy blasts, all in all, I humiliated them. I cornered 18 and yelled, "This is for Gohan!" Her eyes were wide with fear once she realized she wouldn't escape this time. Just before the blast hit her, she looked up at me as if I had broken her heart. Once it had hit, I heard her scream and once the smoke had cleared, nothing was left of her.

"18…" 17 said, looking at the spot where his sister had been standing. Turning to me, there was pure rage plastered on his face. Not only had I messed with his mind, but I had taken his sister, his only companion, away from him. "You killed my sister!! How dare you!"

He growled and his energy level soared, but wasn't enough. He flew towards me with every intention of getting revenge on me for reminding him of his past, for killing his sister, and for ruining his fun that day. I had no sympathy for him. He had helped kill all of my family and friends except for my mom and Gohan's mother, Chi-Chi. It was his turn to die. 

I tricked him and purposely did some of my old techniques so that he would think he knew all my moves and would think he would win. I found I liked playing with his mind, it worked so well. He grinned as he matched me blow for blow and blocked my attacks. I grinned at the thought that this would be over soon. Finally, I had had enough of toying around with him and kicked him in the gut. He hurdled down to the ground and lay still for a second. In that second, I took my chance and threw an energy blast down at him, just as he was sitting up. The next second, he was gone, for good. 

Later on, I killed Cell easily and returned to the past to tell everyone the good news. When I returned I met all of my friends and saw that Krillen and 18 had gotten married. 18 was so obviously pregnant. I looked at her in shock, so she had changed after all. Our eyes locked when I told everyone that the androids and Cell from my time were dead. She didn't move to kill me, didn't even blink when the news was told, but I know she had to have felt some anger because I had killed her. Krillen looked very happy though and didn't seem to notice his wife's very, very subtle reaction.

"That's too bad," he remarked. "My 18 is an angel, maybe your 18 would have turned out all right. Oh well, at least I have this one and soon I'm going to be the happiest Dad in the universe!" He laughed and everyone laughed with him, except for 18 and I. We still looked at each other. 

Looking back, I wonder if maybe Krillen was right. The 18 from this time did seem to be more caring than 17, at least to me. If I didn't know better, I would think that she had been in love with me. But it couldn't be possible, could it? Every time I think about it, I remember the look on her face when I killed her, the pain and rejection all in that second before she died. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had let her live. Would she have become a good android like Android 16 and her counterpart in the past? Would she have helped rebuild all the cities instead of destroy them? What if I had been sure that she had been in love with me and gotten married to her? These thoughts haunt me every so often, but I guess things turned out for the best. Maybe nothing good would have come out of letting her live. Maybe she would have been the same as she was before and would still be destroying cities to this day. At least 17 is dead, I know he would never have become a good android, there was too much hate in him. I'll never know now about 18, but it doesn't matter. Cities are being rebuilt, the population is starting to pick up. Things are how they should be.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Hey guys! The story is over, but if you want, I can make an alternate ending. I was torn between making this ending and a different one that you can kind of figure out (it was a better ending for Trunks and the world *wink wink*). So if anyone wants me to add the alternate ending to this fic, let me know and I'll write that one. See ya!

~Lady Branwen~ 


	3. Chapter 3 Alternate ending

Okay, as you will be able to tell, I continued the story line, connecting this chapter with the last one, but this is STILL AN ALTERNATE ENDING!  I just want to get that out of the way. :)  I like both endings, but this is the last ending I'm writing, I swear!  Actually, personally I like this ending better, but that's just my opinion, read it and decide for yourself.  Thanks!

~Lady Branwen~

Disclaimer:  I obviously don't own DBZ or Linkin Park!  Duh!  

Points of Authority

I can't stop thinking about her.  Her death haunts me and I can't stand thinking about the last look she had on her face before she died.  There was so much anguish, hurt, and rejection all on that face that had never shown any of those emotions before.  Could I have changed her?  Could it be that when she had kidnapped me along with 17, I had been her one and only true companion and she fell in love with me?  

I keep telling myself that it can't be true.  18 could not have fallen in love with me.  I've grown up seeing her destroy whole cities with a grin on her face.  I've seen the pleasure she took in hurting people.  How could she have the capacity to love someone like me?  Sometimes I wish she were still alive so that I could just confront her about it and just get this 'love' nonsense over with.  But…She truly was nice to me once she and 17 had kidnapped me.  She never beat me or challenged me to a fight after that.   

One day I was feeling particularly annoyed with these thoughts and I somehow managed to bring myself to their cave in the mountain where they lived.  I don't know how I ended up there, I was never allowed to see where we were going, but nevertheless, I found myself walking around in the familiar lab.  

I walked around, taking in the sights and seeing how they had lived.  I never really took the time when I was there to look around.  I was always plotting on an escape route.  For the first time, I walked into a bedroom.  If I remembered right, it was 17's room.  There was barely anything in it; just a closet with a few changes of clothes, a TV that didn't work, and a bed.  Across the hall from his room was 18's.  

In deep contrast to her brother's room, the walls were painted a peach color and a four poster wrought iron bed with a place for a canopy.  In place of the canopy, 18 had wrapped vines around the bars.  It must have been beautiful when she first hung them up, but now the entire vine was shriveling and falling apart.  18 took great care of her room.  The bed was made and everything she had was neatly arranged.  I found a few romance novels lying on her bed stand.  What would she want these for anyway?  Could she really feel love?  Under the novels was a notebook.  I opened it and read:

_"Well, after seeing that kid's journal, I decided to see what this is all about.  Writing down thoughts I mean.  17 took everything that Trunks ever wrote in.  Trunks.  Hmm…It's weird calling him by is actual name.  We've always just called him 'blondie' or 'kid.'  He didn't have an identity to me until I actually started talking to him when 17 kidnapped him.  _

_"Trunks seems foreign to me.  He's nothing like 17 or I and he's nothing like those pathetic humans we blow up every day.  All they ever do is run around screaming.  They are no match for us.  Trunks on the other hand, he's not as afraid of as the other humans are.  He even goes so far as to threaten us, yet around me when we had our little talks here in the lab, he was calm and he never threatened me.  I suppose that it's because I didn't hurt him.  I didn't hurt him not because I liked him or anything.  I was actually planning to mess with his mind or something…but that didn't work out.  Instead, I think he was messing with my mind because I get these strange feelings when I'm around him.  Before, I always wanted to kill him, or use him as a punching bag.  Now though, I don't feel that…I don't know what I feel."_

There was more in her journal, all of it kind of the same, hinting that she had some feelings other than hate for me.  That gives me even more proof that she felt _something toward me.  The fact that I think about her so much makes me think that I also had romantic feelings for her.  I took her journal home, along with my own writings that I found on their couch.  _

I've always thought that when I finally killed them, I would be able to live in peace.  I would be ecstatic that they were gone and I could live the life I was supposed to live.  Instead, I just found myself thinking about her more and more, wondering what would have happened if I had let her live.  I never think about 17; I'm glad he's dead.  He was a worse menace to society than 18 was in my opinion…or are my feelings getting in my way of judgment? 

I've decided that I have to go back in time and change things around.  I want to know what happens if 18 lives.  I can't admit it…I can't admit my feelings for her, but I know they are there.   I hate myself for feeling this way about one of the androids who have ruined my life and robbing me of the chance to make something of myself other than a warrior.  I will never be able to become a doctor, lawyer, anything at all thanks to them.  And here I am pining away for 18.  No one can understand how ashamed I am of myself.  

I haven't told Mom of my plans to go back and change our history.  I know she would be against it.  I can hear her now, "All that I have worked for!  Building this time machine so that you can make the world a better place and so that maybe with Goku's help you can get stronger to defeat our androids and here you use it to bring one of them back to life!"  I can't tell Mom, but I don't know what I'm going to tell her when 18 suddenly appears.

I climb hesitantly into the time machine.  It's been 6 months since I last used it.  I know it works.  It's the dead of night and Mom is asleep in her room.  I sigh and wrap my coat around me to keep out the chill wind that has suddenly picked up.  I lift my gaze toward the sky thinking of Gohan and how ashamed he must be of me.  If I'm this ashamed, he must be.  Or maybe he remotely understands me, but just doesn't approve.  I don't know.  18 turned out all right in the other timeline, maybe she'll be nice in this one too.

I close the hatch and punch in the coordinates for the day I had come back from the past.  I find myself right outside of Capsule Corp.  I see another time machine a few feet in front of me.  "Oh shit, I didn't go back far enough, I'm already here."

I sit in the time machine thinking that it would be best if I just went back to my own time.  I hadn't messed with the timeline yet and everything would stay the same.  But thanks, to my father, I had some stubbornness in me and I refuse to leave without what I came here for.

I climb out and fall to the ground and walk toward the door to just peek inside and see how much time I had before my other self would come out to kill the androids.  Just as I get to the door, it swings open and there I stand with my old girlfriend behind me.

_"How can she be here?" I wonder as I look from the me in front of me and then to my girlfriend whom the androids had inadvertently killed while she was shopping.  I'm sure if they had known that she was my girlfriend, they would most definitely have tortured her.  _

But anyway, here I was, standing face to face with myself and my dead girlfriend.  Yep, the timeline had already changed.

"Where are you going?" I ask my past self.

"I'm going to go kill the androids," he says slowly.  "Why are you here."

"Never mind why I'm here," I say.  "Tell me what is happening in this timeline.  Have you went back to the past?  Has anything major happened to Nadia?" I ask indicating my old girlfriend.

He turns and looks back at her.  "No, nothing has happened to her that I know of…I did go to the past though.  I went to give Goku his heart medicine and I ended up going back to see if the medicine worked and I stayed to help them with the androids."

"What else?"

"Well, they were absorbed by Cell and Gohan defeated him."

I sigh and look at the ground.  Everything is almost the same, except for the fact that my girlfriend is still alive and my other self's hair is still long.  "What about Mom?"

"She's still around…Do you want to talk to her or something?"

I shake my head.  "No, that's okay.  Listen, why don't you just stay here and I'll take care of the androids and Cell for you?  You just got back and all.  You should spend some time with Mom and Nadia."

"But-"

"It's okay, I'm strong enough to kill them and Cell."

He stands looking at me then nods.  I don't bother to wait and I fly toward the city the androids were destroying when I had come back.  I find them both exactly where they were supposed to be.

As soon as I let myself be seen, both 17 and 18 look at me and immediately notice I am different.

"He's changed," 17 comments.  "I see you've finally decided to come and fight us.  It's been a while."

"So, you've come back for more punishment? Good. I've been having a bad day and killing you will be just what I need," she says.

She tries to attack me but even in this time I am too fast for her.  I fight with her and argue with 17 until I finally have 18 cornered just as I had in my own timeline before I had killed her.  Again I see that haunting look on her face.  I stand with my ki blast held at point blank range in front of her face and look at her to see exactly what she feels.  She stands there not moving at all, just continues to stare wide-eyed at me.  Quick as lightening, I turn and aim the blast at 17 who had been sneaking up behind me.  The blast leaves nothing to say that he had been there a moment before.

I turn back to 18 and study the expression on her face.  Her mouth is dropped in astonishment and she backs into a wall.  Then she looks at me and studies my face, trying to decide if I will kill her too.

"How do you feel about me?" I ask.  "What was that look on your face a minute ago?  You looked like I was about to betray you…like I was breaking your heart.  What is that all about?"

"I-I don't know what your talking about," she says.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about.  Are you in love with me?"

Her expression softens and she looks away.  "Of course I don't," she denies.  "You just killed my brother, how can I love you?"  

"But you knew this would happen.  I know you have feelings for me 18.  I went back to the past and I saw you there.  You were completely different.  You had a kid and you got married.  You are capable of loving someone."

She doesn't look at me directly.  "So?  That doesn't mean I have any feelings for you or for any human."

"Oh I think you do.  I read your journal, 18."  Her head whips in my direction and she stares at me in horror.  "You do have feelings about me but you're not willing to admit it to anyone, not even yourself."

"How did you…never mind.  Get on with it."

"With what?"

"With killing me!  Do you really have to humiliate me like this?  I kept you alive when 17 wanted you for his toy, I warned you about 17's plans to kill you and you do this to me before I die?"

"See, that's another thing…you did me all these favors…why?  You wouldn't have unless you had some type of feeling for me."

She can't find any way to deny it.

"What do you want from me?"

"I killed you in my time, 18.  Ever since then, you have been haunting me and I've found that I have feelings for you too."

Her mouth moves, but nothing comes out.  "You…you have…feelings for me?"

I nod.

"What kind of 'feelings?'" 

Now it's my turn to be uncomfortable.  I loath saying these words, but I can't possibly deny them.  "I love you."  As I say it, I'm looking at my feet, pretending that my shoes are the most interesting things in the world.

She puts her hand on my arm and I look into her eyes.  They are not their usual cold selves; her eyes show more affection than I have ever seen in them before.  Then again, she could just be faking all of this, so I keep my guard up.

"You don't really mean that…do you?"

I'm shocked at how convincing she is…I feel myself leaning closer to her until our lips meet.  I know that I'll either hate myself for the rest of my life, or I will feel this undeniable feeling that 18 is supposed to be the one I love.  As our lips touch, I feel at peace and know I am in love with her.  She wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me into a deeper kiss while I draw her closer to me.  

We pull away stand looking at each other for what seems like ages.

"Did you feel that?" she asks.

"Yeah," I say rather breathlessly.

"Me too…"  These feelings are so obviously foreign to her.  She has no idea how to feel or what to do about any of this.

"Listen," I say as I take her hand in mine, "Why don't you come with me back to my time?  I came from six months in the future.  You don't have any ties here.  Your brother is gone.  There isn't anything for you here."

"I guess I could."

I smile for the first time in such a long time and we fly together back to the time machine.  I could sense Cell's energy already at the house and I kill him easily.  I see my other self coming to see what was going on, so I grab 18's hand and we run to the time machine and go back to my time.

As we are traveling through time and space, I see 18 staring wonderingly at the colors swirling around us.

"18…"

She turns to me.

"I'm sorry about killing your brother.  I know he's all you ever really had.  I wish that I didn't have to take him from you, but I couldn't allow him to live."

She looks at me and says, "Believe it or not, I understand.  But that doesn't mean that I'm happy about it."

I stroke her face and find to my surprise that her skin is not cold as I had always thought the androids were.  In fact, she feels warm. 

She turns away and focuses her attention back on the swirling masses of colored clouds.  "I'm just glad you made it a quick death.  Not a long one like he was planning for you."

Suddenly the time machine is back out on the front lawn of the house.  It is still late and dawn will not come for a few more hours.  I lead 18 into the house and into my room.  I give her an old shirt that she can wear for the night and promise her that we can go shopping for clothes in the morning.  We climb into the bed together and are just content to hold each other that first night.  Just because we are kind of rushing things in terms of moving in together, doesn't mean that we have to rush everything.  18 falls asleep quickly, resting her head on my shoulder and I stay awake watching her sleep.  I still have no clue what to tell my mom in the morning when she sees a supposedly dead 18 lying with me in bed…I suppose there is really nothing I can say other than that we were meant to be.


End file.
